Swim School parents and friends
You may have seen a segment on 60 Minutes last night regarding Shallow Water Blackout Drowning
At Just Like Fish Swim School, Rutherford we follow the guidelines set by our industry body Swim Australia, which is to not undertake any form of hypoxic training or any extended breath holding activities in our Infant, School Age or Mini Squad (Marins/Dolphin programs).
The link to Swim Australia’s full statement regarding this matter is at SwimTV UPDATE – What is Hypoxic Training? (September 2014)
Breath holding for conditioning and submersions in our swim lessons, under the guidance of our qualified and trained instructors is not to be confused with extended breath holding and hypoxic activities. Our programs are designed and our Instructors are briefed on suitable and safe breath holding skills to assist your child/children in their preparation for submersions and strokes.
All breath holding activities conducted are within the individual capability of the child, and our instructors enable and encourage the taking of breath when required.
If you have not seen the 60 Minutes segment on Shallow Water Blackout, we strongly recommend you view it from this link – Shallow Water Blackout
This segment discusses a very common and popular backyard pool game played by children all over Australia, which has a very high risk of Shallow Water Blackout.
Instances of Shallow Water Blackout have only been reported to occur in backyard pools or in elite competitive swim training programs, however there are no reported cases known in learn to swim centres
With regard to our Junior and Senior Squad this is a practice that we use in order to prepare them for racing and competition. We always do this under supervision of our coaches and is always done in a progressive manner with sufficient rest in between. We have introduced further steps and instructions prior to these activities now to ensure further understanding by our swimmers.
Please watch this clip below from Swim Australia President Ross Gage which was part of the interview that 60 minutes chose to leave out but was added into their “Extra Minutes” page. It explains perfectly why and how Hypoxic training should be done.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any queries in relation to this story or our swim program.